Category: News

September 2006 – Welcome, Constantino Ruibal, Visiting AFToL Researcher

The Lutzoni Lab is excited to welcome Constantino Ruibal from the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures (CBS) in the Netherlands. He joins our lab as an AFToL visitor, and his research will focus on the phylogenetic placement of various groups of melanized, meristematic rock fungi. This work ties in well with the ongoing, NSF-funded research in the Lutzoni Lab to Assemble the Fungal Tree of Life (AFToL), since a number of these organisms are closely related to lichenized fungi in the Chaetothyriomycetidae. As a result of this research, we may gain insight into a number of interesting questions concerning the ecology and evolution of fungal lifestyles, including the origins of lichenization. This work is in collaboration with Sybren DeHoog (CBS) and Cécile Gueidan (Lutzoni Lab).

May 2006 – Congratulations Drs. O’Brien and Rydholm!

Drs. Heath O’Brien and Carla Rydholm have both successfully defended their theses and now become distinguished Lutzoni Lab graduates. Heath wrote his thesis on Nostoc systematics and the specificity of associations between fungi and cyanobacteria in the lichen genus Peltigera. He will be staying on as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in our lab. Carla’s thesis focused on Aspergillus systematics and population biology. In the fall, she will begin a program in law here at Duke. Congratulations and good luck to our recent graduates!

February 2006 – Welcome, Louise Lewis, Visiting Researcher

We welcome Louise Lewis from the University of Connecticut! In our lab, she will continue her study of the evolutionary relationships of symbiotic green algae. She is investigating the relationships between the green algae (“zoochlorellae”) engaged in symbioses with different sea anemone species. The “zoochlorellae” are related to lichen algae such as Coccomyxa, connecting her work with research in the Lutzoni lab.

January 2006 – Welcome, Katalin Molnár, Visiting AFToL Researcher

The Lutzoni Lab welcomes Katalin Molnár to Duke University! Katalin is currently a PhD student and a member of the Bryological Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, where she is the curator of lichens for the Eger Cryptogamic Herbarium of Eszterházy College (EGR). She comes from a floristic background, and has recently studied the lichens of the Carpathian Basin. She is spending the semester assisting with the AFToL project, and hopes to use the techniques that she learns in order to conduct future population studies addressing questions concerning pollution tolerance in Hypogymnia physodes and Lecanora conizaeoides.

November 2005 – Congratulations to Suzanne Joneson for passing her prelims!

October 2005 – Welcome, Martin Kukwa, Visiting AFToL Researcher

The Lutzoni lab is extremely excited to welcome Martin Kukwa from the University of Gdansk in Poland! He will be visiting for the next several months to work on the continuing AFToL project. His work in the lab will consist mostly of lichen identification and sequencing of the eight major loci outlined for the AFToL grant.

July 2005 – Welcome, Brendan Hodkinson, New Graduate Student

The Lutzoni lab is excited to welcome Brendan Hodkinson to Duke University! Originally from Westminster, MD, Brendan received his B.S. in Biology from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, where he conducted a flora of the local lichen species.

He is spending the summer working as an associate in research on the AFToL project. Beginning in September 2005, he will be a first-year Ph.D. student at Duke, where his research will focus on interactions between non-photosynthetic bacteria and lichens.

May 2005 – Congratulations, Dr. Valerie Reeb!

Lutzoni lab members congratulate Dr. Valérie Reeb, our first graduate student to be awarded a PhD! She has completed her thesis entitled “The lichen family Acarosporaceae: circumscription, origin of divergence and evolution of group I intron encoded homing endonuclease,” and is looking forward to returning in September 2005 to conduct her postdoctoral research.

September 2004 – Welcome, Tami McDonald, New Graduate Student

The Lutzoni lab is delighted to welcome Tami McDonald to Duke! Originally from St. Paul, MN, Tami received her B.A. in Biology and English from Grinnell College, and her M.S. from the Biology Department at the University of Minnesota.

After her Masters research regarding the taxonomy of Sticta, Tami worked on secondary metabolism in Aspergillus at the Plant Pathology department at the University of Wisconsin. She is now a first-year Ph.D. student at Duke, where her research interests will center on the molecular genetics of fungal symbiosis and pathogenicity.

May 2004 – Undergraduate Research in the Lutzoni Lab

Two Duke undergraduates will join the Lutzoni lab this summer to carry out independent research regarding symbioses between Ascomycota and photosynthetic organisms.

Amanda Way, a rising sophomore, will be sponsored by the Howard Hughes summer fellowship program, and will be exploring the diversity and molecular systematics of secondary fungi associated with the lichen Umbilicaria from western North Carolina.

Lindsay Higgins, who has worked with us for the past semester, will be supported by the NSF REU program in Bioinformatics and Phylogenetics, and will be using a direct-PCR approach to assess the diversity, species composition, and molecular systematics of apparently unculturable fungal endophytes associated with representatives of several major plant lineages. Welcome, Amanda and Lindsay!